, formerly from 1987 to 2013, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Natsume Atari is based in

Shinjuku, Tokyo , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and is known for developing licensed titles and mobile games. The company was founded as Natsume Co., Ltd. in 1987. In 1995, its American division Natsume Inc. split to become an independent company. The name "Natsume" was retained by both companies in their respective countries. In 2013, Natsume Co., Ltd. renamed itself Natsume Atari following a merger with its subsidiary Atari Inc. (a

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...

company, not to be confused with the American game company) that year. Since 2016, Natsume Atari's division Tengo Project has developed modern remakes to classic video games.

Products

During the

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

and

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania an ...

era, Natsume Atari developed numerous titles, often licensed, such as ''

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an American media franchise created by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Shotaro Ishinomori built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. It is currently ow ...

''. Natsume Inc published a wide range of titles, including those developed by Natsume Co. Ltd., such as '' S.C.A.T.'', ''

Wild Guns ''Wild Guns'' is a 1994 space Western Shooting game#Shooting gallery, shooting gallery video game developed by Natsume Atari, Natsume Co., Ltd. for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Set in the American Frontier, Wild West with steampun ...

'' and '' Shadow of the Ninja''. Natsume Atari also released the SNES game '' Pocky & Rocky'' as well as '' Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals''. Natsume Atari had also developed the Medarot games up until the end of the GBA era, and Natsume Inc. published some of them outside of Japan. A sizeable amount of Natsume Atari's products were video games it developed for other publishers. Some of its biggest clients over the years included Imagineer,

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...

and

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...

. Most of Natsume Atari's video games, as a sub-contractor, were original titles, but it occasionally developed some

ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...

as well. Taito, in particular, outsourced the development of three of its

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

ports to Natsume Co., Ltd.: '' Sagaia'', ''

Renegade Renegade or The Renegade may refer to: Aircraft *Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design *Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design *Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design Games *''Command ...

'' and ''

Special Criminal Investigation ''Special Criminal Investigation'', also known as ''S.C.I.'' for short or as ''Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation'' in some home versions, is vehicular combat racing game published by Taito for arcades in 1989. It is the sequel to the ...

''.

Corporate divisions

Natsume Co., Ltd. was founded in Japan on October 20, 1987. It became the parent company of Natsume Inc., founded in May 1988. Natsume Inc. started publishing video games in 1990. By 1995, Natsume Inc. had broken away into its own company and is separately owned and operated. In October 2002, Natsume Co., Ltd. founded the

company Atari Inc. (not to be confused with the American game company) in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, which specialized in developing slot and pinball machines. On May 6, 2005, Natsume Solution began operation in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

. This division specializes on web site development, providing mobile solutions/services and developing web systems. On March 1, 2006, Natsume Solution was merged with Evolve. Natsume Co., Ltd. changed its name to Natsume Atari in October 2013, and it is not directly connected to Natsume Inc. or its subsidiary Natsume Inc. Japan. Despite their corporate split off, Natsume Atari and Natsume Inc. have continued to collaborate on a number of occasions. Within Natsume Atari exists Tengo Project, an internal development team established as early as 2008 for the production of ''

Omega Five ''Omega Five'' (or ''Omega 5'') is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Natsume Co., Ltd., more specifically an internal team named Tengo Project, and published by Hudson Soft for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Hudson released the ...

'', which has shifted its focus to modern revivals of classic video games. Composed of veteran developers with an average age of 54 (as of 2022), its permanent members are composer

Hiroyuki Iwatsuki Hiroyuki Iwatsuki (岩月博之) (born 1970) is a Japanese video game music composer who has contributed to the soundtracks of ''Ninja Warriors'', ''Pocky & Rocky'', and ''Omega Five''. He has been composing and arranging songs for the game compan ...

, designer Shunichi Taniguchi, and programmer Toshiyasu Miyabe. Its works include ''Wild Guns Reloaded'', ''The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors'' and ''Pocky & Rocky Reshrined''.

Works

Pre-split Natsume

These are games produced while Natsume Inc., was still operating as a subsidiary of Natsume Co., Ltd. Natsume Inc. would publish only Natsume Co., Ltd.'s games until becoming independent in the mid-90s.

Natsume Atari / Natsume Co., Ltd.

Natsume Atari, formerly Natsume Co., Ltd, has mostly acted as a developer since splitting from Natsume Inc. - although it has also published some games, notably in the '' Medarot'' series.

Tengo Project

Note

References

{{Reflist

External links

Natsume Atari homepage
(Japanese)
Natsume Co., Ltd. homepage
(Japanese, old)
Natsume Solution/evolve Co., Ltd. homepage
(Japanese) Video game companies established in 1987 Video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game publishers Japanese companies established in 1987 Mass media companies based in Tokyo 1995 mergers and acquisitions 2013 mergers and acquisitions Shinjuku